Posted on 09/11/2001 11:04:07 PM PDT by HAL9000
Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the 1998 bomb attack on the US embassy in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, has denied that he is behind Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.Bin Laden contacted a Pakistani newspaper on Wednesday to say that he supported the attack, but was not involved, reported the BBC.
The denial will no doubt be welcomed by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, who have been sheltering bin Laden. They have denied that bin Laden is capable of launching such a complex operation.
However, US officials had said on Tuesday that the people who conducted attacks on New York and Washington that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon may have had links to Saudi exile bin Laden or his organization.
Names of suspected "terrorists" with possible ties to bin Laden's organization were found on the passenger rosters of the hijacked planes, a government source had said. Throughout Tuesday, US officials have said the massive attacks by hijackers who crashed commercial airplanes into the buildings may be linked to bin Laden. An Arab journalist with access to bin Laden told Reuters in London that the Saudi exile had spoken of an "unprecedented attack" on US interests three weeks ago. US officials, however, said they had no knowledge such an attack was coming. "There was no advance warning of this," one unidentified official said.
Asked if he believed bin Laden was responsible, Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "A lot of things point to him."
"There are indications that people with links to bin Laden and the al Qaeda organization may have been responsible," an unnamed US official told Reuters. "There is reason to believe people with links to him may have been responsible for this."
US is still investigating whether the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year was tied to bin Laden.
But some intelligence analysts urged caution in making snap judgements about who was responsible for Tuesday's attacks, saying it could have been the work of other groups tied to the Middle East, angry over a perception that the United States supports Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians.
CNN reports that several groups, including Hamas, in the Middle East have denied responsibility.
President Bush, in the meanwhile, has said he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Destroy the power plants, transmission lines, POL dumps, pipelines, train and car bridges and tunnels and the airports.
Make it impossible for these insane cultists to get out to the world to do any more harm. Cut them off so thoroughly that a jeep can't get out, and a strong hiker only with great difficulty in about a month of walking over mountains. Use Afganistan's geography against them. Reduce them to a 12th century standard of living.
Then tell Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan etc "this is our new policy for dealing with nations which harbor terrorists".
Taliban slammed over bin Laden appointment
MOSCOW, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the appointment of Saudi terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, the official RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Bin Laden's appointment confirmed that a center of international terrorism is being set up in Taliban-controlled territory, the ministry said in a statement.
"Pseudo-religious values are being used as a cover to prepare a bridgehead for expansion of militant extremism and separatism far beyond the region's borders," added the statement.
This month, Russian media quoted Pakistan's Nation daily as saying that the Taliban had named bin Laden commander of their troops. Afghanistan's civil war concerns the Kremlin as hundreds of Russian border guards monitor the Afghan-Tajik border and a potential spill of violence could plunge the whole region into chaos.
Moreover, the Taliban's aim to build an orthodox Islamic state has given rise to many Islamic extremist movements in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. In recent years, Islamic insurgents from Afghanistan launched raids on Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The Taliban's ongoing clashes with the Northern Alliance movement backing ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani -- the leader of the government general recognized by international organizations -- have alerted Russia and its partners as arms smuggling, drug trafficking, kidnapping and other crimes have flourished along the Afghan-Tajik border.
On Thursday, Moscow also condemned the appointment of Juma Namangani as bin Laden's deputy. Namangani, an ethnic Uzbek, was liked to a number of raids on Kyrgyzstan's Batken district over the last three years. Namangani advocates creation of an Islamic state run by a regime similar to the Taliban's and spreading over Central Asia.
"Incorporation of the international terrorists' leaders into the ruling structures of the Taliban shows the need to take decisive measures to collectively counter global challenges that are put forward from the Taliban-controlled territory," said the statement.
-- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
Marc Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Bush should ask Congress to declare war on Afghanistan, and any other nation that harbors these terrorists. Kill them, their families, and their friends. By doing this, the world will be safe again. Without this, we will be waiting for the next massacre.
Well, they are fresh out of friends, and they will soon pay the price.
Three primary harbors of support for Osama Bin Laden and training for his cells are Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China, among others.
Bush said that the terrorist and those who harbor them will face our counter-attack. He made no distinction between the terrorists themselves and those who harbor them.
Osama Bin Laden resides in Afghanistan.
Therefore, if the FOX report is accurate, than the only proper response is to tell Afghanistan, both the current government, specifically the Taliban, as well as counter-governments within Afghanistan which may have sympathy for Bin Laden, that they have two days to turn Osama Bin Laden over to the US authorities or we will declare war on Afghanistan and that their major cities and factories will undergo major air strikes and other military offensives. If the Afghan government, the Taliban, claims it is beyond their power to apprehend Bin Laden, then we strike immediately without waiting the two days.
Bush made no distinction between the terrorists themselves and the nations who harbor them. Very good. Now, we don't know exactly who harbored them. And, what if it is China? Because, intelligence has shown that indeed China gives support to terrorists. I hope Bush is sincere in what he says, because for the most part he is a vacillating whimp as has been shown in almost every case, including our dealings with China. So, I am hoping that the political situation will not let him whimpy out again. I pray not. Because this isn't maybe war, this is war. Whoever did this, we are at war with them. This is war. Whimpy out again, and the next attack upon America will come again, next time more horrible, because if this isn't war than nothing is. If it turns out that Pakistan, Syria, or any other country also had a minor hand in this including Palestinians or China, we send strategic strikes including counter-terrorist hits to take out any of those individuals who assisted this no matter where they are located. We arrest any United Nations official in New York who defends the recent attacks upon the United States, and then take whatever funds of theirs we can and then deport them.
They're all talking to each other... The American media can blither on vapidly however it chooses; Bin Ladin, the Taliban, the Iranian mullahs, and Saddam are all of one mind when it comes to America, and however much they bicker among themselves, they will act in concert when the opportunity comes to attack us.
The Arabs have a saying: "Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousin, me, my brother and my cousin against the Infidel".
Personally, the Trade Center attack surprised me, because I've been expecting a nuclear attack with Pakistani-supplied nuclear arms, not something like this.
Yeah, Bin Ladin is going to deny it - what do you expect, that he'll *admit* it so he can make himself a target? He's not stupid, you know. He and the rest of them have specific political objectives: Make the U.S. lose its resolve to support Israel. For that, they don't need to claim credit for any of these attacks; all they have to do is make us suffer enough that we start questioning whether supporting Israel in the Middle East is worth the lives of tens of thousands of American urbanites.
This war that everyone has suddenly discovered that we're in, goes all the way back to the Crusades; maybe all the way back to the Babylonian Captivity. But it's become far more dangerous now that the orangutans have learned to use modern technology...
And as far as evidence being planted, a terrorist is GOING TO plant as much evidence as possible to PROVE that they indeed did the act!! This is the terrorist SOP. What is the use of sacrificing your life if no one knows why.
This government conspiracy thing is gotten WAY out of hand. Bin Laden was either directly, or indirectly involved, so was the Taliban, by keeping this scum safe. It is time to declare war, and be done with this pussyfooting around!!
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